Last updated 2026-07-11
TL;DR
Start with 5 to 10 high-motivation signs like 'more,' 'eat,' 'all done,' 'milk,' and 'help.' Sign every time you say the word, use hand-over-hand modeling when your toddler is calm, and expect first signs to appear within 4 to 8 weeks of consistent practice. Signing does not delay speech: research consistently shows it supports verbal development.
Does it actually work?
Yes, and the evidence holds up well. A widely-cited 2000 randomized controlled trial by Acredolo, Goodwyn, and Horobin published in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior followed infants taught symbolic gestures. At age 2, the signing babies had significantly larger vocabularies than non-signing controls, and by age 3 they scored higher on verbal IQ tests than both their non-signing peers and the general norm [1].
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association notes that augmentative and alternative communication strategies, including manual signs, do not inhibit speech development and can support it [2]. The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees: gestures and pointing count as early communication milestones, and building on them is sound practice [3].
None of this makes signing magic. It's a bridge. Some toddlers pick it up right away. Others barely use it and would rather grunt or drag your hand toward what they want, and that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong.
Here's the honest caveat: most of the research followed infants who started at 6 to 9 months, not toddlers already 18 to 30 months old with possible speech concerns. The closest available data suggests signing still cuts down on frustration behavior in older toddlers with language delays, but there's no large randomized trial for that specific group yet. The logic still holds, though: you're giving a child a way to communicate before their motor speech system catches up.
When to start, and which signs first
You can start today. Infant research suggests earlier exposure leads to earlier first signs, but toddlers actually learn signs faster than infants because their fine motor skills and imitation are further along [1]. A 15-month-old with no words yet can often produce a recognizable sign within one to three weeks if the motivation is strong enough.
If your child is 12 to 24 months old with only a handful of words, signing is one of the most useful things you can do right now, well before a speech therapy evaluation even happens. Early intervention services typically start around 18 months for language delays, but there's no reason to wait that long to begin signing [4].
If your child is 2 or older and already talking some, signing still helps: pair signs with words your child already uses to reinforce meaning, or add signs for things they want but can't yet say. And if your toddler isn't yet making consistent eye contact or isn't imitating actions at all, hand-over-hand practice and reinforcing signs in context matter more than waiting for spontaneous copying. That's not a setback, just a sign your approach needs to shift.
Choose signs tied to things that happen many times a day and that your child has strong feelings about. That's really the whole strategy, since motivation drives how fast a sign sticks. A starter set that earns its keep:
| Sign | Why it's high-priority |
|---|---|
| More | Applies to food, play, books, anything. Stops most dinnertime meltdowns. |
| All done / Finished | Gives your child control over stopping an activity. |
| Eat / Food | Used constantly, easy to produce. |
| Milk / Drink | Covers the most common drink request. |
| Help | Reduces frustration when your child can't do something. |
| Please | Pairs naturally with requests. |
| No | Especially useful for kids who bite or hit to protest. |
| More sleep / Bed | Useful for overtired children who can't say it. |
| Hurt / Pain | Matters most for nonverbal or minimally verbal kids. |
| Open | Doors, containers, apps, anything. |
Don't teach 20 signs at once. Pick three, use them relentlessly for two weeks, and only add more once those are showing up reliably. For toddlers with autism or suspected autism, lean toward functional and regulatory signs first, like "help," "stop," "break," and "want." These cover the communication functions that tend to be hardest, and they're the ones that make the biggest difference for behavior [5].
Teaching a sign, step by step
The actual method is simpler than most books make it sound. Start with pairing: every single time you say the word, make the sign, no exceptions. "More?" (sign more). "Do you want more?" (sign more). "More crackers?" (sign more). You're building the link between the word, the sign, and the thing it means, and that takes repetition more than precision.
Next comes modeling in real moments rather than staged ones. Don't sit your toddler down for "sign practice," because that's not how toddlers absorb language. Use snack time, bath time, book time, play time, and make sure the sign shows up right when the thing it refers to is actually there.
Hand-over-hand prompting has its place, but use it sparingly. When your child reaches for something, gently take their hands, shape the sign with their fingers, and immediately hand over what they wanted, saying the word as you go. Then stop and wait. Once or twice is enough; five times in a row stops teaching communication and starts teaching compliance.
Then comes the pause, which is the hardest part for most parents. After modeling a sign, stop talking and wait 5 to 10 seconds with an expectant look. That silence isn't awkward, it's an invitation, and your child's brain needs that space to process and respond.
Reward any approximation right away. Your toddler's first attempt at "more" might look like two fists banging together instead of fingertips touching. Treat it like the real thing. You can shape it into a cleaner sign over time; the first try doesn't need to be perfect.
Consistency across caregivers speeds everything up. Grandma doesn't have to sign if she's not comfortable with it, but the more people using the signs in context, the faster your child picks them up. A one-page cheat sheet with the five signs you're working on makes that easy to share.
How long until the first sign shows up?
For a neurotypical toddler who's simply late to talk, most families see a first intentional sign within 2 to 6 weeks of consistent twice-daily practice. Some kids get there in days; others take two or three months.
For a toddler with autism, apraxia, or significant motor coordination differences, the timeline stretches out and gets harder to predict. Motor planning is a real factor: some kids clearly understand a sign but can't yet coordinate the hand movement to produce it. If you're seeing understanding without production after 6 to 8 weeks of steady practice, mention it to your speech-language pathologist. That's useful clinical information, not a failure [6].
Signs also go through a generalization phase. Your child might sign "more" only at the highchair for weeks and then suddenly use it everywhere. That's normal, and it just takes exposure across different settings.
Worth knowing upfront: some toddlers use signs for a few months and drop them entirely once verbal speech takes off. That's a good outcome, not a loss. The signs did their job as a bridge.
ASL, Makaton, or something else?
For most families in the United States, American Sign Language (ASL) is the practical default. The signs are real, used by a large community, and the vocabulary carries over if your child ever interacts with the Deaf community or learns more formal ASL later [7].
Makaton is a simplified sign vocabulary developed in the UK for people with communication difficulties. It draws on a subset of a country's national sign language, paired with speech and symbols, and is common in British early intervention and autism programs, though less so in the US.
Signed Exact English (SEE) maps signs onto English word order and grammar instead of ASL grammar. Some speech therapists favor it for kids learning to read and write English, since the structure mirrors spoken English directly.
For home use, which system you pick matters less than sticking with it. Don't mix ASL "more" with a made-up gesture for "eat": your child needs to see the same form reliably to learn it. If your child is already working with a speech therapist or early intervention team, ask which system they use so your practice at home matches therapy. That alignment makes signs generalize noticeably faster.
Signing will not delay your toddler's speech. This is one of the most common worries parents bring up, and the research runs the other way. The Acredolo and Goodwyn study actually found that signing babies ended up with larger spoken vocabularies than babies who didn't sign, not smaller ones [1]. The thinking is that signs cut down on communication frustration, which keeps a child engaged and motivated to keep trying to communicate, and that leads to more language exposure overall. ASHA's position backs this up: AAC and manual signing don't suppress verbal speech and shouldn't be withheld while you wait to see if talking develops on its own [2]. Many speech therapists actually introduce signs specifically to encourage verbal output, using a technique called aided language stimulation, where the adult signs while speaking and then waits for any response at all from the child. There's one nuance worth knowing. If signing works so well that a child gets everything they need through signs with no reason to try words, some therapists will nudge them toward verbal attempts by raising the bar slightly: accepting the sign, but also modeling the word and pausing before handing over the item. That's a therapy strategy, though, not a reason to avoid signing at home. If speech is your specific worry, the answer is a speech-language pathology evaluation, not dropping signs. See what a speech therapy evaluation actually involves for what to expect. Signing shows up in both autism and apraxia therapy, but it's used differently in each. For toddlers with autism, signing is usually one part of a broader AAC strategy aimed at functional communication: helping a child request, protest, comment, and respond. Programs like PECS, EIBI, and JASPER often use gestures and signs as stepping stones. If your child isn't yet talking and shows any signs of autism, start bringing signing into daily routines right away and get in touch with early intervention services in your state. For the speech-specific side of things, autism spectrum speech therapy covers evaluation and treatment in more depth. For toddlers with childhood apraxia of speech, it's trickier. Apraxia is a motor planning disorder, so producing any deliberate movement sequence, signs included, can be hard [8]. Many kids with apraxia can still learn signs, especially ones using gross hand shapes rather than fine finger movements, but they may need more hand-over-hand help and more time. If apraxia is suspected, a certified speech-language pathologist (CCC-SLP) should guide the signing approach; this explainer on childhood apraxia of speech covers it fully. For kids who may need a bigger communication system long-term, signs often become one layer of a multimodal AAC plan that might also include a speech-generating device or picture board, which this guide to AAC devices walks through. A few mistakes come up again and again. The biggest is handing over the item before the child signs. If your toddler reaches for crackers and you sign "more" while giving them over without any response from your child, you've practiced a behavior, not taught a sign. The sign has to come first, even if that's just a one-second pause and an expectant look. The second mistake is trying to teach too many signs at once. Three signs used a hundred times each beats twenty signs used five times each; depth of practice beats breadth, especially in the first two months. Third, some families only sign at one time of day. "We do signs at snack time" isn't enough. Signs need to show up across activities, places, and people before your toddler's brain treats them as real tools instead of a snack-room routine. Fourth is stopping too soon. Four days of signing "more" and deciding it's not working isn't a fair trial. Language acquisition, whether verbal or gestural, takes weeks to months. Fifth is correcting the sign instead of responding to the intent. If your toddler makes an approximation and you say "no, like this" and reshape their hand before giving them what they wanted, you've made communication feel corrective and a little unpleasant. Respond to the intent first, and shape the motor form over time. If you want a structured way to practice language targets daily, the Little Words app (/start quiz) has guided routines built around naturalistic language modeling that pair well with signing practice at home. Signing is a tool to use while you're figuring out the bigger picture, not a substitute for figuring it out. The AAP recommends a formal speech and language evaluation if your child has no words by 12 months, fewer than 50 words by 24 months, isn't combining two words by 24 months, or loses language skills at any age [3]. Those benchmarks hold regardless of how well a child is signing. An 18-month-old who signs "more" and "eat" but has zero spoken words needs an evaluation, not reassurance. Signing is great evidence of cognitive and communicative intent, but missing speech milestones is still a reason to bring in a professional. Your state's early intervention program (Part C of IDEA for birth to 3, Part B for 3 to 5) provides free evaluations for children under 3 suspected of developmental delays [4], and you don't need a pediatrician's referral to request one, though having one can speed things up. Look for a speech-language pathologist with the CCC-SLP credential from ASHA; you can find one through ASHA's ProFind directory at asha.org. If appointments are hard to come by, online speech therapy has expanded a lot and may get you seen faster. The Little Words app also has a short quiz (/start quiz) that can help map your child's communication profile while you wait for services. As for keeping practice from feeling like a drill: don't drill. Toddlers learn language in real life, during real interactions, around things they actually care about. Work signs into play. If your child loves trains, sign "more" every time you add a car to the track. Sign "stop" and "go" during chase games, "help" when a block tower's too tall to reach, "all done" at cleanup. The sign should feel like part of the activity, not a detour from it. Books work well for this too. Slow down during favorite ones and sign key words as you say them; your toddler will start anticipating the sign, which is its own kind of comprehension practice. Singing and signing together works even better. Kids who resist imitating in neutral moments will often copy hand movements during a familiar song. "Wheels on the Bus," "Twinkle Twinkle," and "Old MacDonald" all pair naturally with ASL-adjacent signs. Video can't do this job. Signing apps and videos are fine for teaching yourself the signs, but the research consistently shows toddlers don't pick up language from screens the way they do from live interaction with a person [9]. Learn the sign from the video, then teach it in person. Aim for five to ten meaningful signing moments a day: that's plenty. Consistent, embedded practice, tied to things your child is motivated by, beats any structured program.Frequently asked questions
What age is too late to start baby sign language?
There isn't one. Calling it "baby" sign language at age 4 is really just semantics. If your toddler already talks but has gaps in what they can say, signs can fill those in. For older kids with autism or more significant language delays, signs and other AAC approaches stay useful all through childhood. Generally, the earlier you start, the more room you give your child to communicate.
How many signs should a toddler know at 18 months?
There's no real benchmark for signed vocabulary, since most milestone research only tracks spoken words. Developmentally, an 18-month-old is expected to have somewhere between 5 and 10 words, and some frameworks count spoken and signed words together. If signing is how your child mainly communicates, it makes more sense to track their total vocabulary, words plus signs, rather than counting spoken words alone.
Can signing help a toddler who has tantrums because they can't communicate?
Yes, and this is one of the better-documented benefits. When tantrums come from not having the words to ask for something, protest, or express a need, they often ease up considerably once a child has even a few reliable signs. "Help," "stop," "more," and "all done" alone cover a lot of frustration-driven meltdowns. Most families see a change within three to six weeks of using signs consistently.
Do I need to know ASL to teach my toddler signs?
No. You just need to know the handful of signs you're actually teaching. Free resources, including the ASL dictionary at lifeprint.com and short videos on YouTube, are enough to pick up the motor form for twenty or thirty common toddler signs. You're not learning a language, you're learning specific gestures. Try to get the signs you use most right and consistent, so your child sees the same shape every time.
Should I sign with a toddler who already has some spoken words?
Yes. Pairing signs with words your child already says strengthens the connection between meaning and symbol, and it gives them something to fall back on when speech doesn't come out under stress or fatigue. Plenty of partially verbal toddlers will use a sign in loud or overwhelming settings where their spoken word gets lost. Signs and words end up supporting each other rather than competing.
My toddler understands signs but won't produce them. What should I do?
That's normal. Comprehension shows up before production. Keep modeling the signs without pushing your child to produce them. It can help to simplify the signs you're using, since some need finer finger control than others. Hand-over-hand prompting once or twice a session, in a calm moment, is worth trying, but don't turn it into a demand. If your child understands signs but still isn't producing any after 8 to 10 weeks, mention it to a speech-language pathologist, since that pattern can point to motor planning difficulties.
Is there a difference between signs for autism versus signs for speech delay?
The signs are the same either way; it's the teaching approach that shifts. Autistic toddlers who struggle with social attention or imitation may need more hand-over-hand guidance, a parent positioned in their visual field rather than facing them head-on, and signs paired closely with preferred items or sensory experiences. For late talkers without autism, modeling signs naturally during play is usually enough to get things moving.
What's the difference between baby sign language and AAC?
Baby sign language is just using a small set of manual signs with infants and toddlers to support early communication. AAC, or augmentative and alternative communication, is the broader category, covering manual signs, picture boards, speech-generating devices, and communication apps. Signs are one type of unaided AAC. If your child seems to need more than a handful of signs over the long term, a speech therapist can help you figure out whether a fuller AAC system makes sense.
Will my child's daycare or preschool use signs with them?
Many will, especially programs that already serve children with IEPs or language delays, so it's worth asking the director. Even if the classroom doesn't use formal signs, you can hand teachers a one-page list of the five to eight signs your child uses at home. Most are glad to use them during snack, transitions, and circle time, and having that consistency across home and school speeds things along quite a bit.
How do I know if a sign is working versus my toddler just making random hand movements?
Look for three things: the same hand shape showing up in the same context repeatedly, eye contact or orientation toward you around the time of the movement, and a clear goal behind it, like reaching toward food while signing. A real communicative sign carries intent. Random hand flapping or stimming looks different: repetitive, but without that contextual pairing and usually without looking to you for a response.
My toddler stopped signing after starting to talk. Is that a problem?
Almost certainly not, that's actually the expected path. Signs work as a bridge, and once speech is reliable, most kids drop the signs on their own because talking is faster and gets a better social response. Some keep a few signs around for emphasis or for noisy rooms. If the drop in signing comes along with an overall drop in communication attempts, mention it to your pediatrician, but in most cases this transition is a sign of progress, not a setback.
Can I use made-up gestures instead of real ASL signs?
You can, and your child will pick them up if you're consistent. The catch is that made-up gestures won't mean anything to anyone outside your household. Real ASL signs, even approximated ones, give your child something that works with therapists, teachers, and the wider world later on. And if you ever need a formal AAC evaluation, having real signs already in place makes that process easier.
Sources
- Acredolo L, Goodwyn S, Horobin K. Symbolic gesturing in normal development. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 2000.: Signing babies had significantly larger spoken vocabularies at age 2 and higher verbal IQ scores at age 3 compared to non-signing controls.
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), AAC Practice Portal: AAC and manual signs do not inhibit speech development and should not be withheld while waiting for speech to emerge.
- American Academy of Pediatrics, Developmental Surveillance and Screening: Gestures and pointing are recognized early communication milestones; AAP recommends evaluation if a child has no words by 12 months or fewer than 50 words by 24 months.
- U.S. Department of Education, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part C: Part C of IDEA provides free evaluations and early intervention services for children under age 3 with suspected developmental delays; parents can self-refer.
- National Autism Center, National Standards Project: Functional communication training including manual signs is an established practice for reducing challenging behavior in autistic children.
- Kasari C et al. Language outcome in autism: randomized comparison of joint attention and play interventions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2008.: Motor planning variability and imitation deficits affect the rate at which autistic toddlers acquire gestural communication.
- National Association of the Deaf, American Sign Language: American Sign Language is a complete, natural language used by the Deaf community in the United States and much of Canada.
- Apraxia Kids, What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech?: Childhood apraxia of speech is a motor planning disorder that can affect the ability to produce voluntary movement sequences, including gestural signs.
- American Academy of Pediatrics, Media and Young Minds (Council on Communications and Media), Pediatrics 2016: Toddlers do not learn language from screens the way they learn from live human interaction; video is not a substitute for in-person language modeling.
- Millar DC, Light JC, Schlosser RW. The impact of augmentative and alternative communication intervention on the speech production of individuals with developmental disabilities. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 2006.: AAC intervention, including manual signing, does not inhibit and in many cases improves speech production outcomes in children with developmental disabilities.
- CDC, Learn the Signs. Act Early. Developmental Milestones: CDC milestone checklists include gesture and pointing milestones as tracked communication behaviors from 9 months onward.